Over one million bales valued at 74 million dollars went to France. Shipments varying in amount from 517,000 to 102,000 bales were made to Italy, Japan, Spain, Belgium, Canada and Austria Hungary. This country also sent 95,000 bales to Russia, besides large indirect shipments credited to intermediate countries. European countries as a whole took 8,638,000 bales, or 94.3 per cent of the total American exports; Japan, Canada and Mexico, 516,000 bales, or 5.6 per cent, and the rest of the world, only 11,000 bales, about one-tenth of one per cent of the total.

The value of the exports of raw cotton from the United States has more than doubled in the last twelve years. In 1902, the total was 291 million dollars, and in 1914, as already stated, 610 million. About two-thirds. of the domestic production of this great staple is now exported. The number of bales reported by the Bureau of the Census as being ginned in the cotton year was 13,965,000, and the exports for the fiscal year, as already referred to, were 9,165,000 bales.

These figures prove beyond a shadow of doubt the right of cotton to be called king of American exports. More than that, they suggest that there is no danger in the immediate future of its being dethroned. Countries in which cotton spinning is an important industry are making every effort to increase the cultivation of this staple, either within the national boundaries or in the colonies and dependencies. These efforts are meeting with some success, particularly in Russia, India and Egypt. But it would seem nature had endowed the southern part of the United States with conditions of soil and climate so well suited for the cultivation of the cotton plant, that efforts for its successful growth on a large scale in other parts of the world must labor under a certain handicap.

*

It may be that the exports of this staple from the United States will fall off in future years, or remain stationary. If such should be the case the reason will be found probably, not in the competition of other cotton producing sections nor in a falling off in the demand for the American product by the spinners of other countries, but in the larger demands of an increasing cotton manufacturing industry in the United States. That country derives the greatest benefit from its export trade which ships its products abroad in the highest possible manufactured form.-[Commercial America.]

COTTON AND THE WAR

Editor's Note. *This review was written before Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria Hungary, Russia, and other European countries went to war in the summer of 1914 and the market for 7 or 8 million bales of American cotton was cut off. Suggestions that the United States government take up the valorization of cotton, as Brazil did with her coffee crop some years ago, have met with little favor. The buy-a-bale-of-cotton movement is not widespread, and the cotton raising industry of this country faces a crisis, with no very promising prospect for 1915.

Volume XIII

CON

WAR AND THE FOOD SUPPLY IN EUROPE.

By V. C. Finch
University of Wisconsin

ONTINUED prosecution of war by an isolated nation depends ultimately upon what that nation can produce. Many things are needed: metals, fuel, animals for draft, feed for animals, men and food. Food not only for those at the front but for the great armies of non-combatants. The present situation in Europe has led to inquiries into the abilities of the countries involved in war to support themselves. For Germany and Austria-Hungary in particular this is a matter of extreme moment. Their central location and undemonstrated naval strength cuts them off from any important over-sea food supply.

The great expansion of industrial and commercial interests in recent decades has created in most European countries a basis for populations much in excess of those which exist in the same countries under purely agricultural conditions. Of the countries at war Belgium and England have the largest proportion of industrial population. Germany and France also rank high in this respect while Hungary and Russia still are dominantly agricultural. In the latter country about 85 per cent of the total population live in rural communities.

So far as the human population of Europe is concerned, among the least dispensable food products are wheat, rye, potatoes, pork, and beef. Other grains and other animals are of no less importance but to consider them would require a study of greater length than is here possible. In normal times the areas in which these staples are produced are distributed in accordance with the workings of certain economic and geographic forces such as the distance and size of markets, value of land, difficulty of transportation, nature of climate or quality of soil. Of these conditions not the least are geographic.

Wheat is native to the sunny lands of the Mediterranean region and in western Europe is to be found chiefly in the dryer parts of England and France where the glacial, alluvial and residual soils are of high fertility. Figure 1, based on statistics of area, somewhat exaggerates the wheat production of Russia as against that of western Europe. The low rainfall and rich, black earth of southern Russia make it a region admirably suited to wheat culture and the area sown is large, but poor agricultural methods give a low yield. France with its small area ranks third in the world's production of this cereal. Germany is not an important wheat producer, partly due no doubt to national prejudice but also to summers with lower temperature and higher humidity and to a soil in many places too light for wheat culture.

Rye furnishes the chief bread-stuff of Germany and in fact of the peasants

Fig. 1. The distribution of wheat in Europe reflects the distribution of sunny climates and rich level lands. There are exceptions to both.

Fig. 2. The distribution of rye in Europe is almost perfectly complementary to that of wheat. It is found in the colder regions, the poorer soils or rougher topography.

[These five maps appeared in the American Review of Reviews, November, 1914].

of Russia. In nutritive value it is not inferior to wheat and it has the advantage of giving a better yield on poorer soil and in less favorable climates. Thus it is much grown on the sandy plain of north Germany, the hilly regions of central and south Germany and the cooler and moister central Russia (Fig. 2). The crop of Russia exceeds that of Germany and AustriaHungary combined. In France rye reaches an important acreage only in the Auvergne Plateau, the poverty spot of the country.

Fig. 3. The distribution of potatoes in Europe is greatly in favor of Germany and Austria. Even Ireland is but a small competitor. Geographic conditions only partly explain it.

The importance of the rye crop in European economy is often underestimated in America. In the five years from 1895 to 1899, rye formed 49 per cent and wheat 51 per cent of the combined crop of these cereals in Europe. Of the world's crop of wheat in this time Europe produced only 55.5 per cent, of the world's crop of rye 94.1 per cent (U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Year Book, 1900, page 167).

Whether the supply of these grains in Germany is sufficient to meet the local need is a problem much argued both inside and outside that country. Count von Moltke is inclined to an optimistic view, citing as evidence the fact that Germany has of recent years lessened her import of bread-stuffs. Dr. Ballod, a German economist, in differing with him (Literary Digest, October 17, 1914) supports his position with the assertion that fifteen years ago it might have been possible for Germany to subsist upon cereals produced within her own borders but that today it is no longer so because the absence of im

Fig. 4. The distribution of swine in Europe is partly explained by the potatoes of Germany, the corn of Hungary and France and the oak forests of France, Spain and Portugal.

Fig. 5. The distribution of cattle in Europe is largely a question of pasture. Their relative absence from the Mediterranean coasts with their dry -s is especially to be noted.